15 stats from 15 funded clients

Preparation of a crowdfunding campaign requires focus on two key elements:

1. Lead investment

2. The wider crowd

We’ve analysed the “wider crowd” data from 15 recent successful client campaigns to see which contact groups bring in the most investors, which groups bring in the most money and to look at other key trends. The results are interesting. For the purpose of this exercise, please consider the “wider crowd” to be investors investing £25,000 or less into a campaign.

Here are 15 things to note from the data of 15 recent clients.

Investment amount

1. The most popular investment amount was around £1,000.

2. The most popular investment amount from family & friends was between £250 and £1,000.

3. Whilst some Linkedin contacts invested up to £25,000,  the most popular investment amount from Linkedin contacts was £250.

4. The majority of people who pre-registered for early access to campaigns invested between £500 and £2,500.

5. The most popular investment amount invested from customer databases was £100.

Conversion rate

1. The average network conversion rate (contact to investment) across all groups was 17%.

2. The conversion rate for existing investors was around 20%.

3. The conversion rate for very large databases of customers or members was typically less than 1%.

4. The conversion rate for family and friends was 8%.

5. The conversion rate for Linkedin contacts was typically higher than any other social media channel

6. Typically around 30% of people who pre-registered their interest in a campaign went on to invest.

Other things to note

1. Outside of lead investment, family & friends were the most common group to support a campaign. This group converted to investment in all 15 campaigns we analysed.

2. Existing investors typically wanted to follow-on into the next raise, at least so as to maintain their current shareholding holding. This group could be quite lucrative, we saw a common trend of investors in this group not leading the round, investing up to £25,000.

3. The more people pre-confirmed investment in a campaign, the quicker the round closed. Pre-registration is very important to your campaign but with 30% of pre-registrations converting to investment, you need to also have a killer launch and marketing plan.

4. Customers databases are great to bolster your investor numbers but they usually only bring low-value tickets. A good range of rewards can help to convert investors from this group.

Top tips

• It’s really important to treat each group of people in your network differently to get the most amount of investment from them, rather than shooting the same mass communication to all.

• You’ll get a much better conversion rate on a customers mailing list if it’s current and includes first names.

• Presentation of mass emails is key to avoid spam filters, e.g. include Dear + first name in the body of the email instead of Dear customer. If people think you know them, they’re more likely to open the email and hear what you have to say.

• Don’t curate your crowd, you never know who may come out of the woodwork and support you. Even if you think someone won’t invest, they may share it with someone who will. Keep all options open.